Worcester, residents at odds over flooding

Wednesday

Jan 22, 2014 at 6:00 AMJan 22, 2014 at 11:16 AM

By Thomas Caywood TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — Residents of a quiet neighborhood in southeastern Worcester say they're struggling with an intractable property owner in their midst — a bad neighbor whose inaction allowed beavers to turn a small brook into a sprawling swamp that periodically inundates their backyards.

Unfortunately for the aggrieved residents, the property owner they have a problem with is notoriously hard to fight — City Hall.

The undeveloped land along St. Anthony Street, where storm water backs up behind a frequently clogged drainage culvert, is owned by the city and controlled by the Worcester Conservation Commission.

When city public works crews clear the blocked culvert, they release a torrent of water that gushes off the city land into the backyards of homes along St. Louis Street, sometimes sweeping away lawn furniture and forming a small pond of standing water lapping uncomfortably close to their back doors.

"They can't just leave us here being flooded like this. It's city land. It's city storm water. It's just not right," grumbled Valery Fleming of St. Louis Street.

A lifelong resident of St. Anthony Street, Janice DiStefano recalls catching frogs and crawfish by the brook on city land as a young girl. Until a few years ago, the brook was barely two feet wide, she said.

Ms. DiStefano and other residents of the area fault the city for allowing beavers to run amok on the land for years. They say the result has been that storm water that otherwise would have flowed harmlessly down the brook as it fell now collects on the city property until it is released all at once in a destructive surge.

"They can't just take all that water and just dump it into our backyards like that," Ms. DiStefano said.

But city officials maintain the changes to the brook are part of a natural process, and that the city can't correct drainage problems on private property. After years of complaints from the residents, the city hired a trapper last year to round up roughly a dozen beavers on the conservation land.

Department of Public Works and Parks Commissioner Paul J. Moosey conceded that city crews have erred in releasing water from the marshy city property too rapidly.

"We went and knocked the beaver dam down and that created a rush of water. It creates a big puddle that then goes away. But our guys should have knocked that beaver dam down more slowly," Mr. Moosey said.

Beyond that, and checking the culvert regularly, the commissioner said there's nothing else the city can do to stop the flooding along St. Louis Street.

"As much as we've tried to make the peace with this neighborhood, their expectations are more than we can handle," Mr. Moosey said. "Any time we get a call from down there that we can do something about, we do."

After hearing from Ms. Fleming, District 3 City Councilor George Russell arranged for Mr. Moosey and other city officials to meet with residents of the neighborhood last summer. The meeting did little to ease tensions between residents and the city. The residents objected to Mr. Moosey's suggestion that they petition to have their private roads accepted as public streets.

Some in the neighborhood feel the city has a hidden agenda to force them to accept public sewers and streets, which they have resisted for years because of the expense. They see the flooding and private streets issues as separate.

"The bottom line is, from what I've been told in the two years I've been in office, legally you can't ask the city to go on somebody's private property to do work, and that's where we are basically," Mr. Russell said.

The neighborhood has heard some version of that statement from various city officials for years, they said, and nothing frustrates them more than the characterization that they're asking the city to pay for work on private property.

"We just want them to fix a problem on their land, their waterway. That's all," Ms. Fleming said. "It's conservation land. That's where the problem is coming from."

Beavers already are back at work on the city property. The culvert was partially clogged during last week's rains, and the water level in the swamp rose to within a foot or two of St. Anthony Street. Ms. DiStefano pointed out a beaver swimming out of the culvert pipe on Tuesday afternoon.

"They're going to keep coming back. They said it's our responsibility to call every time they come back," said Terra Smith, who lives on St. Anthony Street in a house her family has owned for generations.

"This used to be a beautiful neighborhood. The beavers destroyed our area. For two years we were fighting for the city to do something. Their idea was coming in and breaking up the dams and flooding everything out," Ms. Smith said.

Mr. Moosey said city crews will clean the culvert pipe out regularly and check it when major storms are forecast.

"I don't know what else we can do," he said. "If they say the area is wetter now than it was 10 years ago, I don't have any reason to doubt them. It probably is. But what caused that, we don't agree on."